Last Tuesday, Raleigh police—declaring the protest a “non-essential activity”—arrested a woman at a #ReopenNC rally outside of the state legislature building in downtown Raleigh for violating Wake County’s emergency order, which prohibits gatherings of any kind. Under the state’s less-draconian order, the rally would appear to be permissible so long as the protesters maintained six feet of distance.

The roughly 100 protesters demanded that Governor Cooper allow businesses to reopen, despite the threat epidemiologists say such a move would pose to public health. Cooper appears resistant to a “wholesale” reopening, though he has indicated that some businesses could reopen in phases throughout May, depending on COVID-19 trends and the availability of testing and contact tracing.

This protest was part of a larger resistance that has emerged in some Democratic-led states over the last week, including Michigan, fueled by business interests and conservative groups such as the Heritage Foundation. Interestingly, the website reopennc.com was registered in Florida.

Bob Luddy, a major Republican donor and Raleigh businessman, has emerged as a leading backer of the #ReopenNC effort. Last week, he sent an open letter telling Governor Cooper: “You created this tragedy. … This may be a solution for your medical advisers, but the results are now devastating nearly every facet of our society. You have also effectively denied religious freedom, a God-given and constitutional right. Now you are in the process of stripping all our freedoms, purportedly to protect us from ourselves.”

In a subsequent tweet, Adams encouraged North Carolina business owners to defy Cooper’s order, which is set to expire on April 29, as he believes the governor will not allow them to reopen, and the state GOP is feckless.

This is not the first time Adams has courted controversy. A few years ago, UNCW students petitioned to get Adams fired for “a history of spewing misogynistic, xenophobic, transphobic, homophobic, racist rhetoric.”

In 2015, he tweeted: “I’ll agree to limit my magazines to ten when the government limits Muslim immigration to ten.” In 2016: “When someone kills a cop you know his last words were probably either ‘Allahu Akbar’ or ‘Black Lives Matter.’”

In 2007, Adams filed a lawsuit after UNC-Wilmington denied him a promotion to a full professor, alleging that he’d been rejected because of his religion and his conservative writing. In 2014, a federal jury ruled in his favor, awarding him the promotion and $50,000 in back pay.

Polls show little supportfor ending stay-at-home orders. By about a two-to-one margin, Americans are more worried that the government will end the shutdown too soon rather than too late. Public health officials, meanwhile, say that lifting the shutdowns too soon could “nullify” all of the measures taken over the last month to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Contact editor in chief Jeffrey C. Billman at jbillman@indyweek.com.

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Comments (4)

It's Gotten Worse

He's writing racist, misogynistic, and nationalist things on Twitter again. On Facebook, he has doxxed a UNCW student and has publicly given the email address of a woman who wrote a letter of complaint to the chancellor. Not sure how Adams got that email to begin with.

People are enraged and #FireMikeAdams is catching on (this has happened before). He's actively taunting everyone to try to get him fired. What will it take? Find his Twitter: @MikeSAdams to see it.

Dustin Britt2 days ago

Hhhmmm...I WONDER......

Would Sparky be so rabid about his lost 'freedoms' if he were facing a slow, painful death in a hospital due to Covid-19?

Freedom to be stupid is the worst oppression of all.

Mike Harris46 days ago

2nd Amendment

As a firearms owner and believer in the 2nd amendment, Mike Adams just needs to STFU! He's a moron!!

Jim Wegman48 days ago

Idiot

Professor Adams is and has for a long time been one of the leading intellectual midgets of the right wing.

He has no understanding of anything he writes, and his continued employment is testimony to the power of tenure.

Like most of his ilk, he lacks any physical courage. He just tweets for attention and would never have the guts to act.